Private schools line up to become free

Private schools are queueing up to convert to free school status; the subsequent lack of fees may please parents, but critics fear neighbouring state schools will be devastated

Derek Cassells, headteacher at the Maharishi school in Lancashire, which is one of six private schools in line to become free schools from September. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
Christopher Thomond/Guardian

The school register taken, infants in royal blue sweatshirts rise from their desks and begin to walk around their classroom in silence as they meditate. Down the corridor, senior pupils remain seated in their classes, repeating a mantra with eyes closed as they practise a more sophisticated transcendental meditation before lessons begin.

It's this meditation, and a curriculum inspired by the teachings of former Beatles guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, which makes the Maharishi school in Lancashire unorthodox. Just 70 pupils aged four to 16 currently attend the school, but the headteacher, Derek Cassells, is keen for more to share the experience.

"We would like as many people as possible to benefit from our system of education, children from all backgrounds. We want to expand and not have people miss out because they can't meet the fees."

His vision for expansion may soon become possible thanks to the government's free schools policy, which allows parents, teachers and other community groups to set up their own new schools.

The £5,000-£7,000-a-year Maharishi school, near Skelmersdale in Lancashire, is one of six private schools in line to become free schools from September. More than a dozen more aim to make the switch next year.

Their bids are controversial, not least because if they are successful, parents who had opted to pay school fees for their children's education will suddenly find themselves gifted it by the government.

Parents of children at Moorlands, a £5,000-a-year preparatory school in Luton, bought flowers for staff when they heard fees were being abolished, says the principal, Andrew Cook, proudly. "We don't want to change one aspect of what we do; 18 is our maximum class size. We believe our particular traditional brand of education works with children from all social backgrounds."

But according to the National Union of Teachers (NUT), staff at other schools in Luton are dejected by the news, after the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme was axed last year. Under the £55bn scheme, introduced by the Labour government, every secondary school in England was to be either rebuilt or refurbished, but now many have to make do with delapidated classrooms and outdated IT equipment.

According to the NUT general secretary, Kevin Courtney, it is a pattern that is being replicated across the country. He says it is "incredible" that the Department for Education (DfE) can find money to subsidise the well-off when existing state schools have had budgets slashed, funding for school repairs axed and some face making staff redundant. "There's been no debate about whether people want a national state school system or all these independent schools coming in. It's an untried experiment and could devastate state schools."

And he fears worse is to come. Because funding for places follows the pupil, if children flock to free schools, it could leave neighbouring schools with surplus places and budget shortfalls.

The idea of turning private schools into state-funded institutions isn't a new one. Under the Labour government, six private schools became state academies.

But Labour insists the coalition government's plans are completely different, because they involve far more private schools, and are being rushed through, and threaten to cause more harm than good. Under Labour, newly formed academies were accountable to local authorities. Free schools are, essentially, state-funded independent schools; they can set their own curriculum, control their own admissions and even recruit unqualified teachers if they wish.

The shadow education secretary, Andy Burnham, says: "It seems [Michael] Gove has been waving cheques at anyone who wants to open a free school and this is money that could have gone to schools which badly need it. He is prioritising his pet project. It tears at the fabric of state education. I'm very worried about the future of state schools."

The government, meanwhile, insists the demand for free schools is there and that parents want more choice for their children.

Brigid Tulle, headteacher of Batley grammar in West Yorkshire, an independent school that is also bidding for free school status, agrees. She says that the vast number of applications she gets for bursaries is proof that parents want something different to what is currently on offer in state schools.

But she admits that falling rolls and pressures facing cash-strapped parents in meeting the cost of fees (currently £6,000-£8,800 a year) are driving the bid to become a free school. "Over the last 15 years or so, the school has only really managed to maintain a certain fee-paying population. We have 350 pupils and want to get back to around 700. Free schools provide an opportunity to expand back to capacity."

But, as in Luton, the plans have angered local state schools. Jackie Eames, headteacher of nearby Batley Girls high school, is furious after £19m was lost when the BSF was axed. The school also faces the threat of losing 500 of its 1,180 places as part of a reorganisation of secondary schools in the area. "It feels wrong to take from the poor to give to the relatively rich," she says.

"I've been here nine years and it's been a huge success story. Now it's in danger of being destroyed for political vanity."

Joanne Hardcastle, who has a child at the school, is also angry. "I'm worried my daughter, who's in year 7, might not be able to finish her education at Batley Girls."

But some free school bidders are hard-headed about the potential effect on other schools. David Mann is chairman of a free school planned for Rotherham, Three Valleys academy, which is backed by the private education chain the Nationwide Independent College of Higher Education. He says: "Lots of schools in the town are not very good. We are aiming to raise the bar. Unions are obsessed with schools and teachers' jobs, not parents' requirements."

Mann faces a challenge from local education authorities concerning his new 850-place secondary school, which will draw pupils from existing state schools. Barnsley, Rotherham and Doncaster council are fighting the plans and say a new school would inevitably lead to job losses at other schools.

"I don't want that trouble. We just want to build a new school. Manvers [where the school will be built] is a new town development of 1,000 houses. They've got everything there except a school," Mann says.

On quite a different scale is the Priors school in Warwickshire, which aims to be the first free school by opening on 1 September, a few days before the others. It will abolish fees of £3,600- £4,500 and hopes to expand from 30 pupils to at least 45.

Also in the first wave is St Michael's Catholic secondary in Truro, Cornwall. It is abolishing its £3,600-a-year fees to become a free school this year.

Waiting in the wings are over a dozen more private schools, preparing for when applications open in May for the second wave of free schools, starting September 2012.

They include a bid by the founder of Stillbrook Montessori, Bournemouth, which originally hoped to launch a free primary school this year, but withdrew to submit more ambitious plans for a four-to-18 school opening in 2012.

Also in line are Exeter Tutorial college; Rock Hall school in Alnwick, Northumbria; Oxford Montessori; Wisdom school in north London; Lincolnshire Montessori; and a string of Steiner schools.

A DfE spokesman says any private school can bid for free school status and each is considered on a case-by-case basis, but Burnham thinks the government has overlooked the wider implications of its flagship scheme. "The test for a free school is not just if the school gets good results. You need to look at what happens to the ring of schools around it."